SOUNDTRACK: JOHN DOE AND EXENE CERVENKA at KEXP December 31, 2010 (2010).
X toured the Los Angeles album back in 2010–the 30th anniversary of the album. John Doe and Exene Cervenka came to KEXP to do an acoustic set and to talk…a lot. The DJ tells them of when he saw them at age 16. He had his camera and wanted to be a rock photographer. He was getting pushed around in the pit and Exene pulled him onstage (he got great photos which I’d love to see). Surprisingly, Exene does not seem as moved as one might expect by that story.
This is a simple, acoustic set–John with his guitar and he and Exene singing. They play a few songs from across their career: “Because I Do,” “In This House That I Call Home” (a personal favorite), “True Love” (another favorite) and “See How We Are.” John still sounds great, although Exene’s voice sounds a little worn on “Because I Do” and is actually hard to listen to on “True Love.”
There’s some really long interviews–talking about drugs and The Germs and the heyday and how Exene can’t wait for 2011 to start.
[READ: August 27, 2012] The Emily Dickinson Reader
This book is “an English-to-English translation of Emily Dickinson’s Complete Poems.” What? Well, basically Paul Legualt has taken all of the “poetry” out of Dickinson’s poems and has left us with what the poems might mean to contemporary readers. But he also reduced them to basically one line summaries as well–or as McSweeney’s says: “ingenious and madcap one-line renderings.”
So you get “translations” like: #314
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity, It asked a crumb – of me.
Which Legault translates as: “Hope is kind of like birds. In that I don’t have any.” (more…)
I Just Read About That... 